"I can’t let you get away," the older woman whispered, her voice shaking. "He’ll have my head. Please. I can’t."
Kira pressed the sharpened edge of the brush harder against the soft skin of her throat, drawing a frightened whimper from her.
"Listen to me very carefully," Kira said, her voice low and cold. "I’m not playing games. If you don’t comply, I’ll kill you and escape anyway. So, choose wisely. Do you want to be a dead body on the floor while I walk out the front door, or do you want to live and just watch me leave?"
The woman trembled in her grip, her breath coming fast and shallow. For a long moment, she said nothing. Then she exhaled, slow and defeated, and reached down to her waist. With shaking fingers, she untied the small ring of keys fastened there and slowly raised it up where Kira could see.
"Good," Kira said. "Now raise your hands above your head."
The woman obeyed at once.
"Turn around. Slowly."
The woman turned, and Kira kept the broken toothbrush trained on her the whole time, never letting the point waver from her throat.
Kira had always been a survivor. Ever since her days back in Moonfang, she had learnt that if you weren’t the strongest in the room, you had to be the smartest. What she lacked in raw combat strength, she made up for with a burning will to live. That stubborn streak was the only reason she was still breathing today.
"Unlock the chain," Kira ordered.
The woman shuffled forward.
"Carefully," Kira warned. "Don’t try anything foolish. I won’t ask twice."
The woman’s hands trembled so much the keys rattled against the lock. But she finally fitted the key into the silver cuff at Kira’s wrist and turned it. There was a soft click, and the band fell away.
The instant the silver left her skin, Kira let out a breath of relief, her head clearing, and her wrists finally feeling light. She let out a long breath and smiled, scooping the loosened chain up off the floor.
"Now," she said. "Put your hands together. In front of you."
The woman obeyed, defeated. Kira looped the silver chain tightly around her wrists, binding them fast. Then she took the keys herself, crouched, and unlocked the cuffs around her own ankles, freeing her legs at last before wrapping that length of chain around the woman’s ankles too, leaving her bound hand and foot.
When she was done, Kira straightened up and looked at the older woman, sitting trussed on the bathroom floor, and something in her softened just slightly.
"I’m sorry," she said, and she meant it. "For doing this to you. I truly am. But I have to get out of here."
She moved toward the bathroom door, then paused and looked back.
"When your master comes home," she said, "give him a message from me. Tell him that what he actually needs is a lot of therapy and not love."
And with that, she turned and walked out of the bathroom.
She crossed the bedroom where Brian had kept her chained for three long days, her heart pounding, her eyes fixed on freedom. She made straight for the door, the one she had watched them come and go through every single day, the way out of this nightmare.
She gripped the handle and pulled it open.
Brian was standing right there on the other side of the door, his hood pulled low, staring directly at her with a look of disappointed shock.
"Going somewhere?" he asked.
***
Miles away, Alpha Braxton stood in the small room, watching the still form of Claudia as she lay on the bed. Her wounds from the rescue mission at Aethewulf Centralis had been deep, and she hadn’t stirred since she was brought back.
The doctors had done what they could. Now it was a matter of waiting and hoping.
Even though Claudia had been the Head of the House for years, for all the influence she held over his pack and over his own life, she was still, at the end of it, an omega. Weaker than an ordinary wolf. Her body did not knit itself back together the way an Alpha’s would. It made the sight of her lying there, so still and so pale, all the harder to bear.
Milo stood behind him, his head bowed, his expression solemn.
Braxton turned slowly, his eyes hard.
"You had only one job," he said quietly. "One. To watch over my sister."
Milo flinched and lowered his eyes further. "I’m sorry, Alpha. I’m so sorry. I tried to reach them. Claudia and the queen, both, I was trying to get to them when the chaos broke out. But someone struck me from behind and knocked me out cold. By the time I came to, it was over, and they were both gone." His voice cracked with shame. "I failed her. I failed all of you."
Braxton studied him for a long moment.
"Do you remember," he said at last, "what the queen did for you? She freed you from that dungeon. She showed you mercy when she had every reason in the world to leave you to rot there. Because of her, you got to see your son again. Because of her, your family could be whole."
"I remember," Milo said quietly. "Every day, I remember."
"You promised me," Braxton went on, "that you would protect her with your life. That you would repay that debt."
"I did," Milo said. "And I meant it, Alpha. I still mean it."
Braxton was silent a moment, the weight of his sister’s disappearance sitting heavy on him.
"Then here is how you make it right," he said. "I need you to take the scent suppressant again. Go back to Dravengard, the way you did before. Slip back in among them, and you wait. You watch. You listen for any word, any whisper, any sign at all of Kira." His jaw tightened. "The moment you hear something, anything, you bring it straight to me. Do you understand?"
Milo lifted his head, and something steadier settled into his face.
"I understand, Alpha," he said. "I won’t fail her again."